Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes - Portable Love Shack
by Hazuzu
Summary: Madeline Dent is George's apprentice at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. He's given her the task to make and sell a product and return to him with twenty galleons before the end of term. Her product? The Portable Love Shack. Why? No reason. There's absolutely nothing drawing her mind to romance...


This story was written for the 5th Round of the Seventh Season of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. I'm writing as Chaser 3 for The Tutshill Tornados.

**Name of Round:** In a Dimension Far, Far Away

**My task this round is as follows:** (Pocket Dimension) Write about the things that could happen inside a 'space pocket' where the inside is bigger than the outside. Eg: Hermione's beaded bag (with extendable charms), a wizard's tent, a sphere that holds a small universe with a different set of physical laws, etc.

**These are the prompts I'm using to as a chaser to score some extra points: **

5.[Action] Whistling

12.[Last Line] Gladly, I succumbed.

13.[Painting] Van Gogh's The Starry Night

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any part of Harry Potter.

**Warnings:** First person POV, OCs.

Thanks to all my betas!

**Title:** Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes - Portable Love Shack

**Words:** 2997 (Google Docs)

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_/End of Author's Notes/_

* * *

"I call it the Portable Love Shack."

I sat in the back room of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes with my new invention in my hand and hope in my heart, the day before my return to Hogwarts.

George wagged his finger at me.

"Not so fast, Dent. If you want to get your stock on the shelves here, you're going to have to prove their worth the Weasley way," he said all smug.

"With one ear?"

"What? Come again?" George cupped his ear-hole and leaned in. "No, you have to make it yourself, test it yourself, and sell it yourself. Come back to me at the next Hogsmeade visit with twenty Galleons and I'll take a look. And that's Galleons from your product, mind you."

"And how am I meant to test it?" I asked. "All the stuff's here!"

"How d'you think?" George rapped on the side of my head. "The students! The best testing bed for Wizard Wheezes you ever did see. You remember the Skiving Snackboxes, don't you? Canary Creams? All produced, tested, and sold at Hogwarts. If we did it, so can you."

What could I do but agree? He and Fred had done it and gotten all they needed to set up their shop. And I knew I was clever enough to do it.

"Alright, I'll do it! I'll do one better, even! Forty Galleons!"

"Atta girl." George ruffled my hair. "And remember the most important rule of doing things the Weasley way: don't get caught."

* * *

I spent the ride to Hogwarts whistling through the nerves that came with the subtle spellwork needed to craft the Portable Love Shack. I soon found myself back in my quarters in Ravenclaw Tower, with my best friend Willow Woodman on the opposite bed..

"I call it the Portable Love Shack," I told Willow, as I presented my prototype. It was little more than a silver circle that sat in the palm of my hand. "You take an Undetectable Extension Charm, a bit of transfiguration for the ring, and a modified Portable Swamp Spell, and you have your very own getaway for all of your amorous adventures! Whether you want to be at a beach, in a bedroom or at the top of a mountain!" I paused. "As long as it's about the size of this room."

Willow stared at me.

"Amorous adventures…?"

"Yeah!" I beamed. "Everyone's always struggling to find corners to make out in, getting interrupted by Peeves or Prefects or who knows what else. And with the war, people are gonna want to bump up wizarding numbers a bit. What better place than a Portable Love Shack?" I demonstrated its effects by brushing my thumb along the edge of the ring, which expanded to the size of a bicycle wheel.

"What happened to the sweet little Christian girl I met in first year?" Willow asked, her voice laced with faux sadness. "So many years of friendship and I didn't know I was dealing with a pervert."

"H-hey! I'm not a pervert!" Willow had a way of piercing my sales patter, and right then, it was making me blush. "I'm not the one who was caught making out in DADA!"

"How rude!" Willow huffed. "One, he was part-Veela. Two, the Professor said DADA was over. And three, at least I have kissed someone instead of fawning over some weirdo for two years."

"Valena isn't a weirdo!" My blush only got worse. "And I'm not fawning over her!"

"Uh-huh." Willow nodded sarcastically and made a scissor motion with her hand. Whether it was because I was stressed over my invention or because I'd spent another summer with my less than open-minded family, her taunt made my stomach twist in a way that was thoroughly unpleasant.

I whistled a little tune to calm myself down and forced a smile at her.

"D'you want to see it or not?"

"Hmm… I suppose I could do with learning a thing or two from my favoritest friend. Do we just jump in, or…?" Willow got to her feet and I clasped the ring in my hand.

"Here's how it works: You hold it above you, let it fall, and boom! You're in there, and a ring is out here."

"What if somebody steals it when you're inside?" Willow asked, just as I dropped the hoop around us. The air pressure shifted, just for a second, as our quarters faded into something much less warm and cozy.

"Um, you jump out?" I offered, because I hadn't thought of that. And I hadn't finished the Love Shack, either. The basics were all there: sky, grass under our feet, and Hogwarts off to the side. But the stars bloomed like individual suns, the blues of the sky whirled around each other like they were in the middle of a fight, and Hogwarts was just barely a silhouette.

"Why does the sky look so strange?"

"This is just the prototype!" I said, then hurried up to her side. "And since it's going to be mine, I thought: let's really make it mine!"

"… And your ideal Love Shack is this?" Willow shot me a shady side-eye.

"I couldn't think of anything." I shrugged, not that it helped with the weight on my shoulders. "I like Hogwarts, and I like the night, and I think it'd be romantic. But then I think about it more, and who I'd be here with, and I just think of when I was little and my dad would tell me that the stars are all 'the vaulted ceiling of heaven', and I think of what I'd be doing here, and, y'know? I don't think I want angels seeing the kind of things I'd be doing here. So it turns out all messy."

"Aww, Maddy." Willow squeezed my shoulder. She was good like that. "I'm sure you'll find your ideal Love Shack someday. Just because this one looks like crap, it doesn't mean they all will. I'll even help, if I have to."

A bitter part of me wanted to tell her that it didn't look like crap. I'd copied most of it from Van Gogh, because I wasn't even original enough to come up with my own metaphors. I could have created anything with that spell, and I didn't. I wasn't even using my own spells, like the Weasleys did; just modifying ones they invented.

But then I looked at Willow, with her smile, and her kindness, and I knew that I'd have been letting her down if I let those thoughts get to me.

"Thanks." I returned her smile. "D'you mind if we get out now? I want to have at least six of these things to sell tomorrow!"

"Six?" Willow's head shot back in shock. "Are you mad?!"

"I'm Maddy." I winked.

"Oh, we're bringing out the puns now. That's my cue to leave." Willow walked passed me, came to a sudden halt and put her hands on her hips. "How would I do that?"

"You need to use the password. The one for this Love Shack is 'strawberry shortcake.'" I said, and found myself tumbling out of the other side of the ring, back onto my bed. "Right," I said, as Willow appeared a moment after. "I should've thought that through."

* * *

I opened my shop during lunch. It wasn't really a shop; just a corner where I stood with my wares in my pockets and an eye out for customers. The classroom down the hall was a hotspot for wizards and witches looking to practice a different kind of wandwork, and it was only a matter of time until it was discovered by the faculty.

That fear of discovery was what I counted on when I spotted a couple of seventh year students approaching. They held hands, which was a sure sign of imminent lewdness, as far as Mum was concerned.

"Hey!" I waved them over to me. "You two! Looking for a private spot? Oh, I see that blush, sir!" I grinned at the older boy. "Don't worry, I'm not telling, but here's the problem: Peeves is in there!"

"Peeves?" The girl groaned. "Not again..."

"He's a right bastard, isn't he? But don't worry; I've got just the thing." I retrieved a ring with a flick of my wrist and held it up to the light. "The Portable Love Shack! With just a command word, you can have your own private bedroom, soundproof and detection-proof, whenever you or your partner feel frisky! It's got Undetectable Extension Charms; it can transfigure itself for discretion." I demonstrated by making it grow and shrink in my hand. "And it's approved by Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!"

That was a lie, but I was George's protégé, and I certainly approved.

"And it's all yours for only one Galleon!"

"One Galleon?!" The bloke's eyes turned into dinner plates.

"Can you put a price on your girl's smile?" I asked, as slick as a greased niffler, and looked to his girlfriend. "Can you put a price on his… Er… Manly charm? Because that's what this ring is really buying you. All the kissing in the world. No fuss, no muss!"

I came out of the conversation a Galleon richer, and they must have put something in the food, because I got another three customers before the bell was even close to ringing. Then I saw her.

Valena was slinking down the hall, side-by-side with a Slytherin boy and snapping her fingers to make little flames. In her fingers, and in my heart. She was a year younger than me, and she was already practicing wandless magic, and she looked so smug doing it. So damned, enchantingly smug.

"Hello!" Valena greeted me, her voice light and her German accent thick."Mistress Dent, nice to see you." She gathered her cloak around her and bowed. It was so dorky, but in a good way. "Is the coast clear?"

"Wh..." I glanced at the Slytherin boy. "No! Peeves is down there!"

"Darn. Darn and drat and humbug." Valena stood up to her full height and tapped her chin, all dramatic-like. "Well, do you know anywhere else we can go?"

I could feel the last ring in one pocket. And my not-quite full coinpurse in the other.

"Nope! Nowhere!"

"Oh, fine. We'll just keep looking. Come along, Puffguts." Valena strode off again, the boy followed, and I glared at his back until I heard some magic words: "We could just duel in our common room."

"I'm not losing to you in front of everyone!" the boy grumbled.

"Aha! So you already know I'll win?"

Their banter faded into the background and I let out a sigh. Maybe there really was a God.

* * *

I whistled all the way to Professor Flitwick's office. I couldn't help it. A Prefect summoned me there, which meant I was rumbled. I'd sold too many rings, and the word was spreading, and my Head of House had heard, and… My head was abuzz with imaginary consequences. The Ministry restricted the use of Undetectable Extension Charms. Would I be thrown out? Arrested? At least Azkaban wouldn't be so bad, with the Dementors gone…

Not to mention, Willow had been pestering me about the kinds of girls I liked. She'd gotten my fondness for suits out of me despite a wall of blushes and stammering. So I had enough problems without a teacher being thrown into the mix!

I didn't have a chance to sit down before the door of Flitwick's office creaked open.

"I know that tune!" came Flitwick's sprightly voice. "Miss Madeline Dent, please come in."

I shuffled through his office, which was all dark woods and royal colors and filled with the scent of sweets. The long trudge to his desk made the source of the latter clear, as he already had his tin of dancing cupcakes out.

"Good evening, Madeline." Flitwick smiled out from his fluffy white beard, then produced a grubby ring from his desk drawer and placed it between us. It was one of mine. "I spent an hour studying this, ah, Portable Love Shack? And I must say, it's some splendid charm work! The Weasleys have obviously been a good influence on you."

"Y-yeah?" I tried my best to smile. Dad's punishments always came in sheep's clothing, too.

"Yes! I'd say I'm surprised, but I'd be a fool to! You're a very bright young woman; a model Ravenclaw. But, like most of us, you'll have to deal with pesky things like rules." Flitwick tapped on the ring. "Some of them, anyway." There was a twinkle in his eyes.

"I'm not going to stop you from producing these rings, but on a few conditions, for the safety of your fellow students. These apply to all rings you produce. One, all people entering a Love Shack must consent to its use before the charm takes effect, as well as an agreed-upon command word. Two, all entrants must have a nonverbalmethod of exit. Three, the object must eject all occupants upon the casting of any spell. You're a skilled enough witch to be able to accommodate these requests, I hope?"

"I… Yes. Yes, I can." I nodded. A few ideas were already leaping to the front of my mind.

"Splendid! And the fourth condition is that you must replace all existing rings with the new model, free of charge. You have my permission to call upon a Prefect,"—Flitwick pulled a small envelope out of his desk drawer and slid it over to me—"with my authority, should anyone refuse."

"Yes! Yes, I'll do it! Thank you, Professor Flitwick!" I would have hugged him, if there wasn't a hefty desk between us, so I settled for a smile that split my face in two.

"You're quite welcome." Flitwick smiled as he pushed the grungy ring over to me. "And of course, you must destroy all these old models."

"Of course!"

"And if you're to try to step into the Weasleys' shoes, I'd advise not whistling whenever you're bored. Easy to identify who's behind which rumors when you do."

"Um, right, sir."

"And I'd like to request a new one for my own, personal use," Flitwick said. "For academia's sake."

"… Of course, Professor." I tucked the ring into my pocket. "That'll be one Galleon."

He laughed, but it was worth a try.

* * *

Willow gave me a fabulous hint to start selling around the grand staircase, which gave me all the vantage points and passing students I needed to line my pockets with gold. I sold my last ring to a pair of lovesick sixth-years when someone yelled from behind me. I was almost too thrilled with meeting George's goal to hear it.

"Mistress Dent!" It was a voice that made butterflies dance in my stomach. I span around to see Valena, standing over me with an easy smirk and a muggle suit barely concealed by her cloak. "You're the one behind the Portable Love Shacks, if my ears don't deceive me."

"Oh, um, yes." I bit my lip and glanced to the side, like an idiot. "But I don't have any left today..." Not that I would have sold her one anyway.

"Really?" Valena clicked her tongue. "That's a shame, but you can't win them all, I guess. I heard Flitwick raving about your charms, and, well, I'm a bit of a charmer myself." She snapped her fingers and a flame appeared. It made her edges sharper, her red hair brighter, and her smile so much sexier.

"Yeah, I can tell." I fingered the band around my index finger. It couldn't hurt to try. "Um, I do have mine. My Love Shack. You can come visit, if you want?"

"Certainly!" Valena held her hand out and I flicked my wrist until we were each holding one side of a hoop.

"We need a command word and a gesture. Something we won't do by accident. Like, uh, clenching our toes."

"By my honor, no toes will be curled," Valena said. "And for the word… Let's say 'strawberry shortcake.'"

The charm activated, and we let the ring fall around us until we were stood in my Love Shack. It hadn't changed since I'd first got to work on it.

"This is lovely." Valena smiled as she let her cloak fall to the floor. "Van Gogh, if I'm not mistaken, with a little Dent magic."

"You know Van Gogh?" I asked, as I stepped up beside her to admire the silhouetted Hogwarts.

"Of course. He's my great great uncle." Valena took my hand in hers. A blush crept up my neck.

"That's so a lie."

"Okay, this once, you've got me." Valena smiled as she turned to face me, and me her. She was so close. "And according to the Veritaserum Statute of 1918, that means you get one truth. Spend it wisely."

My heart was aflutter. My cheeks burned. My hormones raged. I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"D'you want to kiss me?"

"That's the wrong question." Valena stepped a little closer. "The question is, do you want me to kiss you?"

I couldn't think of an answer that didn't turn my legs to jelly. I looked away, pursed my lips to whistle, but Valena stepped back into my vision.

"Do you want me to kiss you?" she asked again, her slender hand on my waist. All around us, the sky cleared, the stars scattered, and Hogwarts turned from a shadow to a fully-realized castle.

It was as Valena held me in her arms that I realized she'd been trying to woo me since she first approached in the hall. She knew the command word I'd shared with Willow. She waited until I sold my last ring before approaching, ensuring I'd only have my own. She said all of her corny lines because she knew they'd work. She was even wearing muggle clothes!

I could feel Willow's shadow watching us. And I knew that Valena was seducing me. Gladly, I succumbed.


End file.
